Recommendations

Software:
- Avast Free Home Antivirus
  Avast makes a solid and accurate Free AV Product. If you are looking for a free alternative to the more expensive commercial offerings, this is the place to look.
- Spybot Anti-malware
  Spybot works great at removing most of your everyday spyware and annoyances. I have used it for years to clean up some rather large infections. I would strongly recommend apply the Immunizations, even if your machine is clean to help prevent future infections.
- Firefox
  A good portion of the online spyware infections are directed at Internet Explorer. Using Firefox helps block the nasties that target IE.
Hardware:
- Dell
  I have worked with over 1000 Dell machines, from start of life until recycle. This gives me a good view of trends. Overall, they are very well priced for their quality. They are not the best machines, but they are the only ones I can recommend across the board. The one trend to look out for is they tend to buy cheap hard drives. I noticed that over 30% of the machines we bought had a major hard drive failure within 2-3 years. Because of this, I always recommend you keep a good and current backup of your important files.
- Apple
  If you are willing to spend the money, Apple consistently produces the best laptop you can get. Yes this means you have to get used to OS X but you will not be disappointed.